re: #213 FemNaziBitch

SO, I’ve been reading/listeneing to quite a bit of Octavia Butler.

Obviously, I like the writing.

Right now, I’m almost finished with the Parable of the Sower. It’s terrifing that in 1993, she was so close to the truth of what things could be like in 2025.

She certainly has a good understanding of the possibilities of human behavior.

My only problem with the book is that she states everyone gives up dogs and pets because they cannot afford them. It seems to me that in this type of dystopia—dogs would be a necessity. For all the traditional reasons man partnered with dogs.

It’s a problem I have with a lot of fantasy/sci-fi books. They leave out the pets.

I can’t imagine a merchant space ship without cats —can you? I mean, like old trading ships —you got food, you got vermin, therefore you need cats.

I’d think you’d need at the very least cats in space—on sterile, ships in cold space, pets could do much to maintain human sanity on long interstellar flights.

Default ALLAMAGOOSA: by Eric Frank Russell

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58 years ago, Eric Frank Russell wrote Allamagoosa, the funniest science fiction short story it’s ever been my delight to read.

In this exquisite little tale, the captain of a space cruiser is notified that there is to be a mandatory routine inventory inspection. It’s a hassle, but he must comply. After days of work, everything is accounted for except for one item, which reads simply: “offog, one”.

No-one can explain the ‘offog’, and no-one has a clue what it is. Fearful of admitting to his superiors that the item has been lost, he fabricates a little white lie that he’s awfully sorry, but the ‘offog’ had disintegrated in a hyperspace jump.

The story ends with the captain staring at an urgent telex recalling every ship in the galactic fleet, at a cost of trillions of dollars, pending a serious, official investigation….